房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

It was a few minutes after midnight and Zoemi was standing amongst the clouds watching the late-night plane lowering its altitude for the landing.

Wearing only tracksuit pants and a hoodie, the black-haired boy focused – with the law of Sagittarius he was able to hear past the roar of the engines and listen in on the conversations that the plane's passengers were having.

Zoemi looked down - as the clouds kept moving he got a clear view of the city down below.

As it turned out unlocking the law of Capricorn gave him access to all laws at the levels he had in his previous timeline.

It was quite the shocker as the last time a timeline changed he had to start from zero and gained new abilities, but nonetheless, it wasn't an outcome that the black-haired boy disliked.

As he was observing the lights on the ground, his eyes moved from the tiny building that was his house to another one – the clinic hosting the Burushi-like Yuusha.

With the power of the stars at his back and call, Zoemi felt the need to speed things up and go visit the girl who seemed to have at least a couple of answers to his questions, but he somehow managed to hold himself back.

After all, Yuusha must have had a reason for being so cautious with him this past month.

If, for example, talking straight with Zoemi would endanger her family and she wanted to protect them, then who was he to act so selfishly with her?

It was already the date of their pretend date anyway and he would learn everything in just a couple of hours.

Having regained the spiritual energy and therefore the star power would surely be overwhelmingly helpful one way or another.

"..."

Zoemi looked up into the starry sky.

Whatever this world was supposed to be, he wanted to find Miriette and destroy whatever plans Cherro had.

Even after extending the range of his research, he still couldn't find even a trace of her and it was something that bothered him more and more.

Could it be that whatever Cherro had in mind involved Miriette?

That would surely justify her absence in a place that had everyone else from the game world present...

The black-haired boy thought, leaning back, dropping into a freefall.

*WHOOSH*

He flipped his body in the air mere inches away from the ground, stopping himself before touching it and unleashing a small shockwave that stirred up a puff of dust.

"I'll try to search for her with astral projection... copies would get too much attention..."

Zoemi muttered to himself while pulling out a plastic bag with some snacks and two cans of energy drinks from the large pocket of his hoodie and walking home as if he was only on a short trip to a convenience store.

Already back in his room, the black-haired boy turned on the console and loaded up a saved form the Kampf um die liebe. The TV screen showed a scene of the villainess being mean to the heroine.

"..."

Zoemi furrowed his brow looking at Miriette's face – he remembered that exact scene as he lived through it.

The difference between the actual game and the situation he was in was that in the game there was no faithful Zoemi and the spoiled noble girl's side.

She stood there empty, protecting her place in the world all by herself while the player-controlled heroine systematically took it away bit by bit...

"...I will find you, Miri... Pisces..."

Zoemi whispered, clenching his hand on the controller and closing his eyes.

Unlike before, using the law of Pisces after achieving the supernova level of mastery over it, the moment the spiritual energy turned into the star power the black-haired boy experienced the feeling of his body being submerged in an endless body of water.

From there he could send out his consciousness wherever he liked.

It felt strangely familiar to the feeling he got at the end of the past timeline...

Now that he was thinking about it, wasn't he using the law of Pisces then too?

Nonetheless, the most important thing on his mind at the time was Miriette, o instead of pondering over the situation and the effects or side effects of the law of Pisces, the black-haired boy dived in, leaving any doubts behind.

------

"Any plans for today?"

Zoemi's mom asked while preparing breakfast together with Zoemi's father.

"You could try to ask out that girl from the clinic, you know~? Playing games all the time cooped up in your room is not very healthy."

The honey-blond-haired man grinned no doubt opting to tease his son.

"I was playing my games and are going on a date with Yuu today anyway though?"

Zoemi poured himself a cup of tea and tilted his head at his parent with apparent confusion.

"Exactly and... wait...! Are you serious?!"

The honey-blond-haired man snickered about to start giving his boy some advice – when he stopped himself and gasped realizing what his son have said.

"Try to act our age."

Zoemi's mother sighed, tapping her husband's arm with her hand before turning to her son and smiling at him.

"Well, well, well. When did that happen?"

She asked looking almost too proud.

"Yeah. I mean, I was visiting her each morning before school although she would not always be awake yet, when I showed up there after school we would have a little talk. It feels like my efforts have paid off ~"

The black-haired boy hummed casually taking a sip of his tea.

"That's my boy!"

The black-haired woman cheered and snickered at her husband.

"See? He was putting in work when we weren't looking and doesn't need any kind of push. Better think twice before arguing with your intelligent, beautiful, and most importantly humble wife."

She laughed walking up to the honey-blond-haired man and leaning against his chest.

"Kiddo... when are you going out...?"

The honey-blond-haired man met his wife's gaze and asked his son without even looking his way.

"Yuu has a lot of things planned, so we will be going rather early – I should meet her in less than two hours."

Zoemi answered lightheartedly.

"Good... good... Make sure to not get back too early."

"Hmm?"

His father nodded his head and said while wrapping his arms around his wife's waist, while Zoemi looked at them from over his cup.

"Ohhhh! Yeah, sure~!"

"That's my boy~!"

Zoemi only glanced at his parents and immediately caught on to what his father was telling him.

"I always wanted a younger sibling, better late than never – so... I will be counting on you two~!"

Sometime later Zoemi put one hand to his face and called out so that his parents would definitely hear him before leaving the house – and then he confidently went to pick up the Burushi-like Yuusha.

The girl from the clinic dolled herself up so much that she was barely recognizable and Zoemi did not hold back with compliments as he knew how much time she had to spend to tame that bushy hair of hers.

...and judging by the effort she put into her appearance, she was intending to make things look like an actual date, most likely to throw Cherro off as much as possible – which meant that he could not count on an early reveal so that he could stealthily send out his copy to confirm the situation.

"You don't think that I am too bossy with deciding what we will be doing today...?"

Yuusha asked timidly glancing at Zoemi's face trying to feel him out.

"Yuu spent so much time on it though, why would I have something against it~?"

"Ehehe~"

Zoemi hummed in response making the girl by his side giggle.

|It is quite annoying though... I did not sense any magic or even mana movement around us, so unless Cherro is watching us from afar this whole thing is kind of pointless...|

But on the inside, the boy sighed.

Having the girl – who in his mind was having all the information – right next to him and being unable to hear the intel right away was excruciatingly annoying.

First, they went to the movies – which was actually quite surprising for Zoemi.

Out of all the places where they could be observed by Cherro, a dark movie theater was definitely fighting for the top spot.

The movie itself was... nice.

It was an action flick and Yuusha must have picked it up because it would be more to the two years younger boy's liking than some soapy romance.

The CGI was decent but after living in a world where magic and monsters were just a common occurrence it was unable to stir up any emotions in the black-haired boy.

Of course, for the sake of appearances, he made the effort of looking as if he was engrossed in the story but he didn't put his heart into it.

At one point Yuusha started fidgeting and moved her hand toward him.

Zoemi noticed it immediately and took her hand, thinking that she wanted to pass him something in secret...

...but it turned out that she wasn't holding anything – still, once he got a hold of her hand, the girl trembled and her eyes became watery before intertwining their fingers and staring down at her legs as too ashamed of her forwardness.

|...ah, right, we're on a date. We need to act like a couple starting out...|

Zoemi realized and smiled at the girl giving her best.

​ He moved his thumb gently caressing the top of her hand to applaud her efforts and returned to watching the movie.

The Burushi-like girl had planned it all so she must have had a reason.

Most likely to completely throw off Cherro's suspicion.

Yes. For sure.